Slowly getting there

My previously tail-less Akhal-Teke is slowly progressing. With the help of two tutorials by Laura Skillern and re-posted on Jennifer's blog I took the plunge and tried my hands at sculpting my first traditional tail.

I had my boyfriend help me drill two holes in my poor ponies backend so that I could attach to wires. I then strengthened the bond with superglue and baking soda. After that I took masking tape and put over the wires, drew out the shape of the tail that I was aiming for and cut it out.

Unfortunately I was too into what I was doing so I actually forgot to take pictures of the earlier stages.

 After cutting out the shape I strengthened the tape on both sides with baking soda and superglue. I than started putting on snakes of apoxie.

Half of the back of the tail.

Whole back of the tail.

 I then smoothed out the snakes a bit with water:

And smoothed a bit more with water:

Then came the tedious work of sculpting in all the hair detail.
750:-

 

 It took me about 3 episodes of Supernatural to finish the tail and in the end the apoxie was almost a bit too hard to work with so I'll try to be faster next time.

I still need to finish the underside of the tail but as I almost smooshed the details working on one side I didn't dare to work on the underside before this side has dried fully so I won't destroy it.

I am quite happy with the look of the tail so far (especially for being my first try at a traditional tail)!

Christmas Gift

As we were out traveling during Christmas, my boyfriend and I decided to exchange Christmas gifts when we got home as it would only take up space in the bags and might be hard to pack safely.

So when I got home I finally got to open my gift!

I was so excited to open it and find Brigitte Eberls beautiful Octavio resin! I have wanted this model since I saw one painted by Heike Polster and owned by a fellow Swedish collector. I missed out on that one when he went up for sale years ago and I believe he has since left the country.

There is something about this sculpture that I just adore and I can't wait to have him painted as I already have a colour and a painter in mind!

NaMoPaiMo Sign Up!

I entered NaMoPaiMo last year. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish in time. But that doesn't mean that I won't try again this year! And this year, I have chosen an even bigger challenge than last year...

 I consider my experience level to be intermediate, I have painted some models before (I managed to finish 15 last year) and some has done quite well in shows (depending on competition) but I still have a lot to learn and quite some way to go before I'd consider myself advanced!

My model of choice this year is the Horsing Around Akhal-Teke Stallion sculpted by Sue Thompson. He came to me in quite bad condition so he'll have a whole lot of work that needs to be done before I can start painting him. I'm not even sure that I'll manage to have him prepped and primed in time for February 1st.

I plan to paint him Chestnut with lots of chrome as that is a colour I seldom see on Akhal-Teke models. Most of the akhal-teke models I've seen are usually painted in some shade of dilute or double dilute so I wanted to do something a little different.

The mediums I'll use are acrylics, pastels and maybe some coloured pencils for details and maybe some pearl-ex/mica powder/eyeshadow to achieve the certain "glow" that is often seen in Akhal-Tekes.

The biggest challenges with this project is the size. I have never painted anything bigger than little bit scale before. There is also the extensive prepping and sculpting needed to make him ready to paint. Also, chestnut is my favourite horse colour and I usually struggle to get a shade of chestnut that I really like. Next there is the white markings which will provide a challenge when it comes to keeping them smooth.

My goals during NaMoPaiMo this year (except to finish him, preferably in time!) is to try to come as close to the picture I have of him in my head. My other goals is to finish a few more models, some for the giveaway I plan on hosting for reaching  50 000 views and some as donations for a show.

It'll be fun to see how far I'll get, I hope to be able to finish him in a month but I will not rush as me being satisfied with what I've achieved, to have had fun and to have learned from this experience is far more important than finishing in time.

50 000 views!

Sometime during my trip to New Zealand, this blog reached over 50 000 views!

That's quite a milestone for me as I, when I started this blog, wouldn't think that my blog would last this long! As a way of giving back I plan on hosting a giveaway later this year (hopefully in March) as I'll need to finish the giveaway models (and hopefully I'll be able to do so as side projects to my NaMoPaiMo model in February).

Thank you all for the views!

Wordless Wednesday - Pictures from New Zealand

 I won't spam you with holiday picture but I have to share a few. We had a blast, we went riding, diving, rafting, visiting locations from the Lord of the Ring and the Hobbit trilogies, walked in National parks and so much more! Here are a few quick pictures from our trip.

Mist in Milford Sound

We had to brake for horses on our way to Te Urewera.

We met Kea birds in Arthur's Pass.

We stopped for several waterfalls.

Visited the Thermal Park Wai-O-Tapu.

Did the Alpine Crossing in Tongariro National Park.

Split Apple Rock.

We visited Hobbiton.

Went out with boat to see dolphins

Had great views.

Went diving and took photos from the boat.

Back Again!

I just got back from New Zealand! It was an amazing trip and we all had so much fun! I will write a small post and show some pictures in the next couple of days and then it's back to modelhorse posts.

After all, I have a NaMoPaiMo horse to get ready for painting and I need to sign up!

Picture from my trip to NZ

Plans for 2018

As usually I like to start the year by making plans for the coming year and many of the goals from last year will follow me through to 2018.

Old Picture from my trip to South Africa in 2015 as I didn't have any new interesting pics 😊

- Attend at least two liveshows.
I attended every show hosted in Sweden during 2017 and I don't plan to do that for 2018 but I'd at least like to make it to two shows.

- Paint at least 10 of my bodybox models.
This goal will be exactly as last year as 10 models in a year is a very fair goal to set and one that I can actually manage to achieve.

- Send at least 1 of my unpainted resins to be painted.
Last year all of the resins that got paint, I painted myself. This year I'd like to send at least one off to another artist as I love to have other people's work in my collection.

- Paint at least 1 of my unpainted resins.
Not only would I like to send a resin of for painting but I'd like to paint at least one myself as I really love to work with resins.

- Buy at least one of the models on my wishlist.
Last year I bought quite a lot of models and this year me and my boyfriend will hopefully find another place to live which means less money to spend on models. I still hope to add at least one model from my wishlist though.

- Keep blogging.
I set quite a big goal for my blogging last year and this year I would've loved to do the same but I don't think I'll be able to with a possible move and all so for this year I'll set a lower goal. I will try to post at least once a week, hopefully more but I'll set the goal at one post a week.

- Enter the Swedish Photo Show Series.
In the Swedish Model Horse Society we have a Photo Show Series (I believe it's 8 or 10 shows a year) and I plan to enter it for 2018 after been meaning to do so for at least 2 years.

- Host at least 1 photoshow.
I have been judging one show for the Photo Show Series mentioned above for two years in a row and I enjoy it a a lot so for 2018, I plan to host a photo show of my own.

- Register my models/pedigrees.
I managed to register a few of the breeds I have in 2017 but for 2018 my goal is to register the rest that are eligible for registering.

Another old picture from my South Africa trip.